Bella

Bella has started standing with her hands on her hips! Here she is standing in one of the kitchen chairs!

Another visit to the Library

Just a few pictures from our most recent visit to the library.

A Shopping Cart Built for Two

Grocery shopping and such was much easier when Brooklyn was first born and until she "graduated" from her infant carrier to a regular car seat! I would just put Brooklyn, in her carrier, in the large part of the cart (and strategically place the groceries around the cart and on the bottom) and Bella would sit in the front. Well, now it is a bit more challenging. Bella will sit in the large part of the cart, but that doesn't leave much room for groceries and she's likely to start emptying the cart along the way. So...the grocery store where we shop has the carts where there is an attachment for the kids to sit in. They aren't the easiest things to maneuver through the aisles, but it is a solution! This isn't the best picture because they both have their eyes squinted shut because the sun was shining so brightly!

Bella feeding her baby

Bella got a baby doll highchair for her birthday and here she is feeding her baby in her highchair!

Brooklyn's Bug Bite

While at Brannon's Grannie's house for Bella's birthday on Sunday (August 5th), Brooklyn was bitten by a bug and as you can see in the pictures had quite an allergic reaction to it.

We still do not know what it was that bit her, but we are assuming it was a spider. There were no bees or wasps or any other flying insects in the house that day and ther ewas no welp left behind. Whatever it was bit her behind her ear and she had a red rash from her ears all the way to her bottom!

We did not take her to the hospital as she never had any trouble breathing and while the rash itself was hot, she never ran a fever with it and she was playing, happy and eating well. We just gave her Benedryl and put her in a cool bath to try and calm the rash down. She still had a bit of the rash the next morning, but it was no longer hot to the touch and she cleared up within the day!

While all turned out well, she gave us a little scare.

Even more from Bella's Birthday

More of the never-ending 2nd birthday for Bella! These are from her 3rd (and final) party with more of Brannon's family.

Brooklyn even tried to get in on the action of opening presents!

Even Birthday Girls Get in Trouble....

I don't remember what she was in the corner for, but here she is in "timeout"!

More of Bella's Birthday

We had a(nother) birthday party at Bella's Nana and Pop's (Brannon's mom and her husband) house on Saturday, August 4th! There were three other little ones there to help celebrate - Kameron, Ryan and Kylee Anne. Kameron, Kylee Anne and Bella are all 2, within six months of each other and Ryan is three. We had smoked chicken, baked beans, corn on the cob, black-eyed pea salsa and of course more birthday cupcakes! Here are a few pictures from the party!

I covered a piece of cardboard with blue wrapping paper to make it look like the sky, then put "Happy Birthday Bella" on the bottom. I then took the cupcakes and made some into a bouquet of balloons and then also a catepillar in grass (coconut dyed green) and marshmellow clouds!

The three divas. From left to right: Kameron, Kylee Anne and Bella

From left to right: Kameron, Kylee Anne, Bella and Ryan

Birthday Morning

Bella had a great birthday (yes I know it was almost two weeks ago and I am just now posting...but at least I'm posting now)!!!

These are pictures from her actual birthday morning.

Here she is "discovering" her door decorations. I woke her up that morning because Brannon had to work and doesn't get home until 9 pm, so we wanted her to open her presents with all of us there. It took her a few minutes to wake up...

She got a ViewFinder and the Happy Feet, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Nemo reels that go along with it. It didn't take her long to figure out how to click through the reels as well as loading and unloading the reels all by herself!

Bella loves the camera - if I take our camera out and she sees me doing it, she runs up to me and says "cheese"! So she got a camera for her birthday - it takes pictures with real film, but she doesn't know that yet, but she likes to take pictures of herself as you can see from the picture!

Finally, she got a Bowling Set. It has 6 bowling pins and a blue bowling ball! She hasn't quite gotten the entire concept down, but she likes to play with it! She tends to throw the ball instead of rolling it towards the pins!

Of course, we had to have cupcakes on her real birthday! We waited until Daddy got home from work and then we all had cupcakes together.

YUM! YUM! This is good!

The lollipop feet are yummy too!

Oh, just one more PLEASE!?!?!?

Why not?!?!?!!?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELLA

It is August 3, 2007 and Bella is two years old!!

I love birthdays and everything that goes along with them!!

I decorated her bedroom door, so she will have that first thing when she wakes up in the morning.

Then I baked (and iced) 72 cupcakes and 105 peanut butter cookies for her two parties this weekend! We will of course have cupcakes tomorrow night for her "real" birthday and then we'll have them again at each of her parties! The cupcakes in the picture are supposed to be a catepillar in grass! I used lollipops for the feet/legs and M&M minis for the face! Not too bad for an amateur, right?!?!?

Cinderella, Cinderella

Poor Bella has to do so much work around the house! HAHA! She actually likes helping and who am I to discourage such things!?!?!?

Today I was hanging up some clothes to dry and I asked Bella to take the clothes out of the dryer and put them in the clothes basket, not really thinking she'd do it. She took every piece of clothing out of the dryer and put it into the basket for me!! What a doll she can be!

Brooklyn's favorite position is...

Standing Up!!

There's a whole new world from up here!! She loves to be standing up now. If you try to put her on the floor, she gets her feet down first and does not want you to sit her down! It certainly didn't take her long to figure out how to stand up!

Sweet Sisters, I'm not so sure....

Bella loves to tackle Brooklyn (no worries - we intervene when necessary). We just keep telling Bella to beware because Brooklyn is taking names and it won't be long until the roles are reversed, especially considering there is only about 6 pounds difference between the two girls!

Don't be fooled by this last picture either - Brooklyn is usually giggling loudly when she and Bella play like this. However, it is at this point that we intervene and tell Bella that she still has to be gentle with Brooklyn! Maybe one day that will sink in...

Brooklyn found the cabinet...

In several previous posts, I have blogged about the cabinet that Bella would climb into to "hide"...Well, Brooklyn has now found that cabinet! She hasn't climbed into it completely yet, but she was certainly investigating it the other day!